What 100 % means: choosing how to model availability

Summary: Three settings can each stand for "100 %" (the working day, a resource's netto availability and an assignment's units). This article follows one person who gives 75 % of his time to projects through four ways of modelling it, so you can choose the one that fits how your team plans.

 

Applies to

Property	Value
Product	LYNX-X
Version	28.10.9846.0
Required permissions	Space administrator for calendars and resources; read and write access to the project
Last updated	2026-10-12
Owner	Support

 

Definition

Three settings in LYNX-X can each be read as "100 %". Each belongs to a different object.

Setting	Belongs to	Where you set it	What it changes
Working day: calendar and Hours per day	The project, and each resource	Project properties › General; Configuration › Resources › Details › Calendar	How many days a number of hours takes
Netto availability	A resource only. A skill has no netto availability.	Configuration › Resources › Details	Only the resource's capacity line in Resource load
Units	One assignment on one task	The task's Assignments tab	The hours of that assignment, not its duration

Scheduling follows the task and the calendars. Netto availability does not move a task: it sets the capacity that Resource load measures the work against.

 

Purpose

An engineering team plans commissioning work. Its engineers spend about a quarter of the week on support and meetings, so 6 of their 8 hours go to projects: 75 %. The planners need three things from LYNX-X:

1. Automation. As few manual changes to plans as possible.
2. Hours that match. Planned hours go straight into budgets and timesheets, with no conversion factor.
3. Transparency. Everyone reads "75 %" the same way.

There are four ways to tell LYNX-X about the 75 %, and they give different plans. Pick the wrong one and the plan either looks overloaded when it is not, or plans hours nobody will book. If your estimates already assume people are part-time on projects, adding a 75 % on top takes it off twice.

 

Examples

All examples use one task, Run acceptance tests: 40 hours, entered as 5 days on a project with the 8-hour Standard calendar. It is assigned through the skill Field Technician. Warren Barguil holds that skill.

First: assign through the skill, then make the person hard

A skill assignment lets LYNX-X propose a person (soft). Netto availability and a person's calendar belong to that person, so make the assignment hard before you judge their effect. Click the resource name on the Assignments tab, select the person under match: and press OK.

To read a person's load, select the task in the plan, open Res. load, and on the skill's row click Open resource graphs. The person's own row appears, with the selected task marked in orange.

Model A: an 8-hour day, netto availability 75 %

Set Warren's Netto availability to 75 on his resource:

The task does not change: still 5 days and 40 hours at Units 100 %. In Resource load, his capacity line drops to 75 % and the task rises above it:

To make the plan fit, lower the assignment's Units to 75 %. The effort becomes 30 hours and the duration stays 5 days:

LYNX-X does not take the units from netto availability: every new assignment starts at 100 %. If you build projects from templates, set the units once in the template. A project created from it keeps them:

Model B: a 6-hour day for the project and the person

Make 6 hours the day: set the project's Calendar to a 6-hour calendar and Hours per day to 6:00, and put Warren on the same 6-hour calendar. Netto availability stays 100.

A task entered as 5 days now carries 30 hours at 100 %, and Warren does it in 5 days. No units to change:

The person's calendar matters as much as the project's. Left on the 8-hour Standard calendar, Warren does the same 30 hours in 3,7 days:

Hours per day cannot be changed once a project is Released. Decide it before you release.

Model C: the person on a 6-hour calendar

The project keeps its 8-hour day. Warren moves to the 6-hour calendar, at netto availability 100:

The task keeps its 40 hours and takes 6,5 days: the hours are done six at a time. His bar stays at his line:

The duration follows the calendar of the person LYNX-X binds to the skill, so each part-time pattern is another calendar to keep.

Model D: units above 100 %

To show that someone works more than the standard day, you might raise the units. Set Units to 130 %: the effort becomes 52 hours, and the duration does not change.

A warning symbol appears on the task. Hover over it:

LYNX-X schedules the person at 100 %, and the project's Resource load shows nothing at all while the units are above 100 %. LYNX-X cannot work with an allocation over 100 %, which is what raised units would use to simulate more netto availability, or more FTE on a Virtual skill. Netto availability above 100 % does not help either: it adds no capacity and shortens no task.

Model D has two things in its favour:

• The higher effort stays on the assignment. The 52 hours remain recorded for the person.
• The warning explains what happens. It tells you that the person is scheduled at 100 %.

Its drawback: you see the extra effort neither in the task's duration nor in Resource load. Both follow the 100 % scheduling, as the warning says.

Model D is therefore not a viable way to model availability. It is still worth knowing for one purpose: tracking overtime effort hours. The raised units keep the hours a person works beyond the standard day in the effort, while the plan stays at 100 %.

 

Comparing the models

The same task and person in each model, side by side. Each card shows what you set, the task, and Warren's load. In model D the load is empty.

	A. Netto 75 %, units 75 %	B. 6-hour day for project and person	C. Person on a 6-hour calendar	D. Units above 100 % (not viable)
You change	Netto availability on each resource; units on each assignment	Project calendar and Hours per day; each person's calendar	Each person's calendar	Units on each assignment
The task	5 days, 30 hours	5 days, 30 hours	6,5 days, 40 hours	5 days, 52 hours shown, scheduled at 100 %
Automation	Units by hand, or once per template	Set once per project, before release	Set once per person	Not supported
Hours that match	Yes, once units are 75 %	Yes: days × 6 hours	Yes: the estimate's hours	No: the effort shows 52 hours, the schedule uses 100 %
Transparency	"75 %" is set in two places that must agree	A "day" means 6 hours	Durations depend on the person bound	The warning says the person is scheduled at 100 %
Pros	One calendar for everyone; Resource load shows each person's real capacity	No units to change; days and hours convert directly	Hours stay as estimated; fits fixed part-time patterns	The higher effort stays on the assignment, which helps track overtime hours; the warning explains what happens
Cons	New assignments start at 100 % and show over the line until changed	People left on an 8-hour calendar finish early	More calendars; day counts like 6,5	The extra effort shows neither in the duration nor in Resource load, which follow the 100 % scheduling

 

Choosing a model

Start from what an estimate means in your team:

• "5 days" means five days of a person's real project time. Model B keeps those days and makes 6 hours the day. Models A and C would take the 75 % off again.
• "5 days" means 40 hours of work, however long it takes. Model C keeps the hours and stretches the duration. Model A keeps one calendar but needs the units lowered.
• Some people are fully on projects and others are not. Give each group its own calendar or netto availability. Units above 100 % do not work for this.
• You want to track overtime hours. Units above 100 % keep the extra effort on the assignment, but the schedule and Resource load stay at 100 %. Use them to record hours, not to plan availability.

A-dato's advice: create no more calendars than you need. Each one is another place a duration can come from.

 

Key concepts

• Netto availability belongs to the resource. It moves the capacity line in Resource load and nothing else.
• Units start at 100 %. LYNX-X does not take them from netto availability.
• Units change effort, not duration. Above 100 %, the person is still scheduled at 100 %.
• The calendar sets the pace. A shorter day makes the same hours take longer.
• Say which 100 % you mean. Write down what a day and what 100 % stand for in your space, so everyone reads "75 %" the same way.

 

Related articles

• Which calendar a task follows
• Working with unit percentages
• Converting a soft assignment to a hard assignment
• Reading multi-project resource load

 

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Changes
1.0	2026-10-12	Support	New article.
1.1	2026-11-02	Support	Model D now lists what it shows (the higher effort and the warning), what it does not (the effect on duration and Resource load), and its use for tracking overtime hours.